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9th biennial conference on animal nutrition

By STAFF Reporter

GUWAHATI, Feb 9 � The ninth �Biennial National Conference on Animal Nutrition� was organized at the Department of Animal Nutrition, College of Veterinary Science, Assam Agricultural University (AAU), Khanapara recently.

The broad theme of the conference was �Eco-responsive feeding and nutrition: linking livestock and livelihood.� The three-day conference started with an inaugural function, where Dr KM Bujarbaruah, animal scientist and Vice Chancellor of AAU was the chief guest.

In his speech, Dr Bujarbaruah said that the theme of conference was rightly selected with a global perspective. He also mentioned that, though the country ranks first in milk production (135 MMT) in the world, but it also owns a huge livestock population, where there is deficit of feed (30%) and fodder (green 33% and dry 10%) to feed the huge livestock population. �Moreover, looking at the present scenario on global warming, animal nutritionists have to work hard to find out a suitable feeding programme that suits our environment, and on the other hand, it must be sustainable also. We need a sustainable livestock production system that may ensure livelihoods of livestock owners and production of value-added products that suits human health,� he said.

Arun Prakash Sandilya, Chief General Manager, NABARD, in his speech as guest of honour urged the scientists to evolve a practical and economic feeding system so that poor livestock farmers can earn their livelihood through livestock farming. He gave a detailed account of the different beneficial projects offered by NABARD for livestock entrepreneurship.

Dr Gaya Prasad, Assistant Director General (ADG), New Delhi, who addressed the gathering as the distinguished speaker urged the scientific community to adopt a feeding practice with a national perspective in view of the fact that the country�s indigenous animals are low producers and the farmers are small farmers, especially those in the north-eastern region.

In the inaugural session, the Dr DVR Prakash Rao Outstanding Research Award was presented to Dr AB Mandal for the biennium 2011-12 and Dr DN Kamra for the biennium 2013-14. The Dr MS Rahal Best Research Paper Award was given to Dr MK Tripathy (Mathura) and his co-workers for the biennium 2011-12 and Dr SK Sahu (Bhubaneswar) and his co-workers. The Saroj Jakhmola award for best Ph D thesis in Animal Nutrition for the biennium 2013-14 went to Dr RK Mohanta of IVRI, Izatnagar. The Fellow of Animal Nutrition Association was awarded to (Dr) Asit Das, KG Umesh, M Chandraselcharaiah, MK Tripathi, SK Mahanta, SB Jadaao, Sultan Singh and Shriram Duvvuri.

During the three-day conference, four symposia, four technical sessions and four poster sessions were held where two theme papers, 20 invited papers, and 200 oral and poster presentations were made on different aspects of nutrition. Besides the technical sessions, a session on industry-academia interface was also held.

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